The world's largest polluter, the U.S. military, generates 750,000
tons of toxic waste material annually, more than the five largest
chemical companies in the U.S. combined. This pollution occurs
globally as the U.S. maintains bases in dozens countries. In the
U.S. there are 27,000 toxic hot spots on 8,500 military properties
inside Washington's Fairchild Air Force Base is the number one
producer of hazardous waste, generating over 13 million pounds of
waste in 1997. Not only is the military emitting toxic material
directly into the air and water, it's poisoning the land of nearby
communities resulting in increased rates of cancer, kidney disease,
increasing birth defects, low birth weight, and miscarriage.

The Department of Defense Can Already Level the
Globe with Bombs –
Now It's Also the World's Largest Polluter

In this era of "permanent war," the U.S. war machine
bombards civilians in places like Serbia, Afghanistan,
and Iraq. It also makes "war on the Earth," both at home
and abroad. The U.S. Department of Defense is, in fact,
the world's largest polluter, producing more hazardous
waste per year than the five largest U.S.chemical
companies combined. Washington's Fairchild Air Force
Base, the number one producer of hazardous waste
among domestic military bases, generated over 13 million
pounds of waste in 1997 (more than the weight of the
Eiffel Tower's iron structure). Oklahoma's Tinker Air
Force Base, the top toxic waste emitter, released
over 600,000 pounds in the same year (the same amount of
water would cover an entire football field about two
inches deep).

"Climactic Warfare" –
The Important Factor Left Out of the
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change Report that Won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

Under the UNFCCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
has a mandate ‘to assess scientific, technical and socioeconomic
information relevant for the understanding of climate change’. This
mandate includes environmental warfare. ‘Geo-engineering’ is
acknowledged, but the underlying military applications are neither
the object of policy analysis or scientific research in the
thousands of pages of IPCC reports and supporting documents, based
on the expertise and input of some 2,500 scientists, policymakers
and environmentalists. ‘Climatic warfare’ potentially threatens the
future of humanity, but has casually been excluded from the reports
for which the IPCC received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Traveling around the world these past months has given me an
education about American history that majoring in the subject at
UCLA never did. I have witnessed first hand what US imperialism and
militarism can do to countries and societies. I sat with indigenous
Hawaiian tribal leaders who shared their tragic stories of how US
colonialism and militarism ruined their fishing waters and turned
their lands into super-fund sites. I stood in solidarity with Irish
peace activists who want the US military off their soil and want US
transport and rendition planes to stop using Shannon Airport to land
for refueling. These are just a few stories. Everywhere I go, the
local populations have stories of greed, crime, corruption,
pollution, etc., that all go hand in glove wherever the US military
is present. Not to mention the "hot" war zones, where hundreds of
civilians are murdered, maimed or displaced on a daily basis.

The number of health problems and environmental problems that
have been reported near military installations throughout the world
is truly staggering. The following are only a few of the many
examples.

The U.S. Navy is the largest polluter in the San Diego,
California area, having created 100 toxic sites during the last 80
years. Environmental damage caused by the Navy includes spilling
over 11,000 gallons of oil into the San Diego Bay in 1988. Fish in
the Bay contain high levels of mercury and radioactive compounds
that are attributable to Navy pollution of the Bay. (4)

Near the Naval Air Station in Fallon, NV high rates of cancer and
rare diseases have probably been linked to the dumping of jet fuel,
radio and electronic emissions and the contamination of groundwater
with radioactive materials. Fallon has the highest per capita rate
of childhood leukemia in the nation. (5)

It is important to note that the contamination of military bases
is also a problem overseas where significant toxic pollution has
impacted the areas near U.S. military bases in countries such as
South Korea, the Philippines and Panama.

Pollution from the manufacturing of military weapons is equally
horrific. The soil near a plant that manufactured depleted uranium
rounds in Colonie, New York was found to have 500 times the amount
of uranium that one could normally expect to find in soil. (6)